Rapper, Ja Rule gets two years in jail for tax evasion

In a life that has seen more than its share of legal troubles, rapper Ja Rule is now facing his biggest one yet – The New York-born artist was sentenced to twenty-eight months in jail for tax evasion today in a New Jersey Federal Court. He was also ordered to pay the IRS $1.1-million at once.

The 35-year old ‘Rule’, who was born simply ‘Jeffrey Atkins.’ was found guilty in March of not filing tax returns in 2004 and 2006, during which time he’s known to have earned more than $3-million.

Rule is also facing a further two years behind bars after a gun was found in his sports car in 2007. He was found guilty of ‘Attempted criminal weapon possession’ last year.

And this is far from the first time Ja has encountered the law – In 2003 he was accused of assault but settled that case out of court. The next year he was suspected of involvement in a fatal shooting, and was arrested again four months later for driving with a suspended license and drug possession.

Then in July of ’07 he was arrested with fellow rapper, Lil Wayne on drug possession and gun charges.

But there have been some good points – He’s been married since April of 2001 to Aisha Atkins, his sweetheart from Junior High and they have two sons. And they’re sure going to miss him.

Sources believe Rule will serve his time for the gun possession in addition to whatever sentence he gets in Newark today. The most likely location is Rikers Island.

“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” he told reporters before sentence was passed. “I was a young man who made a lot of money, I didn’t know how to deal with this, so I made mistakes.”

Rule looked at Aisha as the sentence was read but made no statement as he was led from the court in handcuffs to begin serving his time…

Yahoo